Art: Original Hitlers

In his old days as a house painter, Adolf Hitler had an amateur's passion for water colors and oils. As a youth he peddled his postcardlike views of Vienna, Munich and romantic ruins from door to door, sold some for roughly a dollar a daub.

Hitler's paintings accomplished some chance good: Jewish dealers and collectors who had bought from the youth sold their choices at steep prices when Hitler rose to power, and used the proceeds to flee his hand. In his might, Dictator Hitler grew bashful about his art: he seized all the examples he could find, destroyed most of them....

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